ANKARA, Turkey  A NATO team assessing sites for the possible deployment of Patriot missiles to protect Turkey’s border with Syria on Wednesday inspected military installations in a province in southeastern Turkey, the country’s state-run news agency reported.

NATO member Turkey asked allies to deploy the missiles as a defense against any aerial attack from Syria, after mortar rounds and shells from Syria struck Turkish territory, killing five people.

Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads.

The team that is selecting sites for the air defense batteries visited military facilities in Malatya province, some 124 miles from the Syrian border, the Anadolu Agency reported.

The province is already home to an early warning radar that is part of NATO missile defense system capable of countering ballistic missile threats from Iran.